


Bad Ends for the Broken Ghost

by Tkhan0



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Bad Ending, Everyone's there but those are the ones with the most presence, Gen, this is pretty self indulgent ngl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24351988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tkhan0/pseuds/Tkhan0
Summary: Some missions aren't meant to be taken solo, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have- even if what you have are just projected clones of yourself for teammates- or more adequately, distractions.But sometimes you can't make do.And sometimes, you pay the price.
Kudos: 14





	Bad Ends for the Broken Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> As it says on the tin, this is very much a bad ending. Visual novel style. No "fixits" planned (yet) so don't enter if you can't handle it.
> 
> The backstory to why this fic exists is essentially this: I had no friends to play this mission with so obviously the answer was to play the quest solo several times as multiple different legends (because I wanted to hear all their lines.) 
> 
> As you'll be able to tell in a moment, I did not succeed as a certain somebody, so when I failed you bet your ass I went "ok but what if that actually happened" and here we are.

When Loba Andrade asks you for something, she usually makes sure you're not in a position to refuse.

Today is no different, all eleven of the legends begrudgingly agreeing to take part in this elaborate artifact heist. 

Through connections only a world class thief such as her could have, an evac ship capable of travelling to Kings Canyon Beta was secured.

"Wraith; I need you to mann the ship- it should be no problem for a former phase shift pilot."

"Wait how did-!"

"A girl has her ways- you can ask me later. Crypto and Wattson- I need you two to establish a comm and tracker system and make sure the ship is ready."

"Oui!" Wattson replies happily.

"Araseo, as long as I'm not involved in the recovery part." Crytpo acquiesces to the demand as well.

Satisfied, Loba moves on down the list. "Pathfinder, you'll be with Wraith. You need to scout the area out and establish a basic path for the ground team to follow."

"Speaking of a ground team~" Loba continues, drawing the words out playfully. "The ship only has capacity for one, so I'll-"

"I'm going." Bangalore cuts in. "Not losing someone out there on my watch."

"Oh-hoho no you're not, _Sergeant_. We need our lovely _second_ in command here." Loba turns serious, almost annoyed, as she huffs "You're the only one they'll actually listen to."

She continues, "Like I've said- I have plans for all of you, but right now, the rest of you who I haven't assigned a job will do a draw to see who gets to be our wonderful ground team."

"Use whatever vernacular you'd like to dance around it Miss Andrade, you can just admit they're going to be the first lab rat." Caustic concludes with a cough. "While I have agreed to lend my help in whatever ways my intelligence may be needed, I refuse to be included as a potential member of this "ground team." My mind is far too valuable to this dimension to go dillydallying in that Beta dimension."

"Fine." Loba responds with a roll of her eyes "Dr. Caustic may be excluded from this draw- I'll find a use for him later."

In the end, Bloodhound, Lifeline, Mirage, Octane and Gibraltar all draw sticks to determine who will end up going. Whoever picks the one with the mark would be the one to go.

Mirage has his eyes firmly closed the whole time, finally taking a peek at his stick- and his heart sinks.

"Ah nuts..." he mutters under his breath before announcing to the group at large "Alright guys, looks like I'm... the ground team. I'll try to get done instantenu- instantain- inst -I'll try and get back fast!"

With that, everyone returns to prepping for the mission or milling about Elliott's bar.

As everyone gets ready and they draw closer to launch, Wraith stops by the bay where Mirage is waiting before entering the cockpit.

"Hey-" she starts only to be immediately cutoff by Mirage's sudden rambling.

"Huh- what? Afraid? Me? I'm not afraid- who said I was afraid? It's just a scary demon dimension I gotta traverse all on my own. No sweat!"

"...Elliott your holster belt is on backwards and your wristpanel is upside down."

"Uhh, right. That was... entirely intentional! To uh... keep them on their toes?"

Wraith just sighs and rightens his wrist panel and belt for him. "Be careful, ok?" She asks.

He doesn't say anything for a minute, before nodding, a quiet "Yeah... yeah, I will." as he steels himself for the mission.

Before he knows it, it's time. "I'm starting the trip- hang on." He hears Wraith say from the ship's speakers overheard.

In the meantime, he triple checks the earpiece and trackers he was outfitted with, makes sure the locator device is functional, and checks the chambers on his p2020 and Mozambique- which, seriously? They couldn't give him anything better than that? Didn't expect a world class thief of all people to cheap out on mission expenses. 

"It's time- get ready." Wraith says overhead, and Mirage attempts to gulp his nervousness down.

The doors drop open and he lands uneventfully in a patch of grass that appears to be right outside the tunnels near what would be artillery in their Kings Canyon.

To Loba's credit, she was right; it seems more or less to be just like their dimension- there's even loot bins scattered about in roughly the same places.

It's just darker. And scarier. Can people die from nerves? He's already feeling a little dizzy.

The earpiece buzzes to life as Loba speaks. "Is everything working? Good. Now, follow the newly added location markers on your device for me and wait for my instructions."

"Alright- can do!" That shouldn't be too hard right?

"But be careful, you aren't alone in that dimension."

_Of course_. Fantastic.

He somehow makes it to the tunnel in one piece and thankfully there's more supplies to be found there.

He's about to go for the stairs when a nearby growling freezes him in his tracks.

He turns just in time to catch sight of the prowlers charging at him.

"OhshitohshitohSHIT!" He lets out a string of curses as he fires a magazine or two of rounds into them. 

He proceeds, albeit more cautiously now through the tunnel, spotting a couple of prowlers before they can get the drop on him.

As he makes it to the other side of the tunnel, a thought occurs to him. 

_Do my decoys work on these things?_

There's one of the buildings he has to pass through just up ahead, but he's seen enough horror movies to know there has to be prowlers just lurking about in there. So what better way to find out?

"Sending out a decoy!" Mirage says, hanging back to observe what happens. 

To his surprise, the monsters react, dumbly clawing at the now obviously holographic person as if it were he himself. This mission just got a hell of a lot easier.

More supplies are grabbed as he clears out areas from a distance before proceeding, using his decoys to check around corners he can't see past.

Finally he reaches the extraction site. "Are you in position? Good. You'll need to start the drill, it'll take two or so minutes to reach the piece so be prepared. The noise will attract them..."

_Hoo boy_. That's a load of information he wasn't prepared for. Nevertheless, he starts the drill, after all, any second longer spent here is a second too long in his books. He stakes out a place just below the second floor to keep close to the piece and keep some space between him and the prowlers.

Of course, he forgot to factor in how high these fuckers can jump.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuck_ \- "Ah-!" A couple land some hits on him, despite his best efforts. 

The drill beeps and he decides his best bet is to book it. 

He makes a beeline for the artifact, but not before nearby prowlers take out his shield. 

"Things are getting a little out of hand over here!" He relays to the alpha team as he sends out another decoy. There's so many prowlers in the area at this point though, that even that's not a big enough distraction.

He's certain he's not gonna make it if he takes another hit. He has a stock full of healing items but they all take so long to use. 

He's pretty close to hyperventilation now, the evac ship is up there waiting but he has to put some distance between him and the prowlers while simultaneously thinning the bloodthirsty shadowy herd. 

When he's gotten a little space he uses his ult in an attempt to buy enough time to pop off a heal.

Every second feels like an eternity, and he just barely fires the round off into the prowler before it reaches him. 

He has somehow bought himself some health and breathing room to work with, so he can finally think for a moment. All he has to do now is make it to the top of the building.

"The evac ship is leaving in 30, you have to go- now!" Oh sure, because that's really what he needed to hear.

He's made the trip to the top of this building a thousand times in their Kings Canyon, and sure, dodging bullets and other competitors is scary, but being hunted down by terrifyingly agile shadow demon prowlers is far more anxiety inducing. 

In the heat of the moment, he forgoes the stairs in favor of climbing up the side of the building, planning to just ride the top of the door up to the roof.

This however was a poor decision, as the prowlers are all over him, and he comes to a spine chilling conclusion-

"THE DOORS DON'T WORK IN THIS DIMENSION?!" Is the last panicked screech they hear before static buzzes over the comms and the connection dies.

There's a moment of shocked silence in the prep room- Bangalore's grip on the dog tags she'd been fiddling with tightens, knuckles going white- before furious typing is heard, as Crypto attempts to re-establish a signal and the others rush out to wait for the evac ship to return.

Wraith is already on her way back- the ship has an auto-course feature in place for safety reasons and to avoid unnecessary stops and wasting time in the Beta plane. There's no way for her to turn back- even with the voices screaming at her to "turn back now!" setting her on edge.

"This better not be a joke, old man!" Crypto says, mind doing it's best to ignore the evidence in front of his eyes to the contrary; Mirage's tracker has gone offline a few meters from the evac point in King's Canyon Beta, the ship has already made the jump from Beta to Alpha, and the comms signal isn't reconnecting.

Loba stands nearby, deathly pale, repeatedly shaking her head in denial. "No, no... this is all wrong! He got the piece- it wasn't supposed to go this way!"

Commotion is overheard outside as the evac ship pulls in, and the legends rush out to greet it. 

"If this is a joke, Witt, I'll kill you!" Crypto proclaims as the ship doors open up- though he secretly hopes the man would decloak, revealing this as some terrible prank in poor taste. Other legends filter in behind him to view the inside of the ship- missing the occupant it was supposed to have.

"What's going on?" Wraith asks urgently, exiting from the pilot bay, sensing the tension in the air, though she has a sneaking suspicion she knows why. "Where's Elliott?" She asks tersely. Pathfinder is right behind her, confused but no less concerned.

Before anyone gets a chance to respond, Bangalore immediately turns on Loba. "I knew we couldn't trust you! I should've gone instead; now we've lost someone for your stupid artifact!"

"No we haven't- I'm going back for him." Wraith declares.

"I'll join this adventure! That world was scary, but Elliott is my best friend." Pathfinder agrees.

"I've got your backs on this one, bruddahs! Leave no man behind." Gibraltar asserts. "I'm no stranger to rescue missions."

"I shall accompany you on this journey as well. Our brethren's fight should not end here." Bloodhound chimes in.

"A death defying recovery mission into uncharted territory? Sweeeet. Count me in, Compadres!" Octane jumps at the prospect, having been more than a little bored just waiting around.

"Nuh-uh, I ain't letting ya go in there alone, Silva. We don't need to add another person to the recovery list." Lifeline says, rolling her eyes at Octavio's outburst and sudden change in demeanor.

Before anyone else can join in on this declaration Bangalore cuts in. " _ **No**_ \- we are _not_ staging a rescue mission." She speaks up over everyone now, commandeering her super serious military general tone. "I'm putting the kibosh on this whole thing- that place is dangerous and repeated passage to that dimension can prove unstable." She says, giving everyone a look that just begs for someone to try and argue her on this.

"As far as I'm concerned, Loba Andrade is a thief and a criminal, and should now be handed over to the authorities for Reckless Endangerment of her fellow legends resulting in the potential causalty of one Elliott Witt. Due to the supernatural nature of this however, I say it's a matter for the showrunners of the games to handle, but mark my words" Bangalore trains her eyes on Loba as she says this, "you will **NOT** be getting away with this scot free, Andrade."

Loba blanches at the accusation, clutching her wristband, and subconsciously backing away as she stutters out a response "What? N-no I- This wasn't-"

Wattson is her saving grace, as she interrupts, "But why not attempt to recover him before it is too late?! I'm sure with all of us here we could do it."

"The ship can't handle repeated travel to and from that dimension with all of you trying to get there- it's not even ready to be used again yet. It hurts to say it... but Witt might be gone. We can't afford to send the ship back out and lose more people right now." The mask breaks just a little, and they can tell it's with a heavy heart Bangalore says this.

An oppressive silence encases the room, as everyone processes what they were just told, some simultaneously trying to think up an elaborate solution to their dire straits.

As if it could get any worse, a deep synthetic laugh stops everyone in their tracks, as the one man who wasn't invited ambles into the room. 

"What's this? A going away party and I wasn't invited? Such a shame- I didn't get to say my goodbyes."

Two burning questions rise to the top of everyone's minds. 

What was Revenant doing here?

...And what had become of Mirage?

**Author's Note:**

> This is being marked as complete until further notice i.e until the next parts of the quest releases and provides me with more potential content, because I'm an angsty self indulgent bitch.


End file.
